Elenei speedily flew through the air and crossed world after world until they reached the location she was looking for.
Celaine recovered from the flight and looked out at the world that they just entered and felt a mixture of emotions, but the most prevalent emotions were excitement and fear.
Yes, fear!
This place is truly terrifying! There is no surface, only air! That's a bit scary, but it's not much to Celaine as she can spot quite a few small floating islands to land on. The truly terrifying thought is, what happens if she falls and can't suspend herself in the air anymore? Does she just fall into the void? Is there actually a ground? Or is this place a sphere and she'll eventually come back to where she was?
Not only that, but with just a quick look, Celaine can see such an amount of avian beasts that it's not even funny.
For a human like her, even if she can fly, avian beasts will almost always have an edge and are also a pain in the ass to take down.
There are also Tornados, Cyclones, Wind Tunnels, and even wind so sharp and hard that you can actually see it! There are probably more dangerous natural disasters as well in this world, but she just can't see it.
Essentially, the place where Maria is training is like a kiddy playground compared to this hell! What kind of person in the Foundation Realm can even survive in this place? Looking at the hell that Elenei brought her to she couldn't help but want to go back as she figured her odds of survival were 30% at best! That's without even knowing the full extent of this aerial hell!
Luckily, it seems like the majority of the beasts are around her strength or maybe slightly weaker, but she can also sense some beasts that are plenty stronger than her.
"Umm… Miss. 'beautiful and majestic' Frost-Fire Phoenix Elenei, I think you took me to the wrong place. As you can see, there's not even a place for me to stand here, how am I supposed to survive and train for the next year and a half?"
Celaine turned to Elenei and said with her best puppy dog eyes, but Elenei just ignored her and played dumb.
"What are you talking about? How can I take you to the wrong place? No, no. This is the right place, I'm sure of it! Well, off you go! I'll see you in about a year! Have fun!"
Elenei kicked off Celaine and flew away.
"AHHH! Fuck you, you dumbass bird!! If I make it out of here alive, I'll be sure to turn your egg into scrambled eggs and eat you for my next meal!!! FUCK!!"
Celaine cursed at this shitty Phoenix while thinking that she was worse than Mira! At least Mira will let you know what you're going to do! Elenei just tossed her in like a sack of potatoes and left without saying another word!! Fucking chicken!
Celaine used her Wind Dao to help stabilize herself in the air and immediately put the matter of eating Elenei at the back of her mind as she sensed a few aerial beasts coming her way.
"Dammit! I will surely kill that bitch when I get back!"
***
Elenei didn't actually fly that far away, but she made sure she was out of sight so she could spy on Celaine for a bit.
She couldn't help but chuckle at Celaine's misfortune. A misfortune that she inflicted on her.
"Fufu~ No wonder Mira likes to tortu-I mean train these two! They are just too amusing! Hehe~ I just wish I could be the one giving her a beating in there, wouldn't that be so much fun? Hahaha!"
Elenei chuckled as she really found Maria and Celaine very interesting. They were both incredibly tolerant people. Mira can beat them up every day and they won't feel any hatred towards her. If Mira says to jump in a pit of lava then they'll jump. If Mira wants to break all of the bones in their body in the name of training, they can only accept it.
Elenei found this quite amusing and wanted to see how far the two of them would go and tolerate in the name of training. Because from what she's seen so far, the two of them will probably even kill themselves if it was some form of training.
Elenei wishes she could order Mira to do something unreasonable like what she just did to Celaine, but doing that will surely backlash knowing Mira's extreme character. Some things you just can't settle by force.
"Well, whatever. If Celaine can truly survive in there, then there is actually a good chance she'll be able to fight against Mira on equal footing. Though she'll probably still need quite a few lucky encounters and near-death experiences to reach that point though."
Elenei just shrugged it off and flew back to Mira.
What Celaine didn't know is Elenei left her a little present just in case she's really in trouble because that place is truly terrifying for someone of her strength.
***
"Did you drop Celaine off there like I told you too?"
Mira asked Elenei as soon as she got back.
"Yeah. She wasn't very happy about it though. Fufu~She even said that she wanted to eat my poor little egg if she survives. I'll be relying on you to keep me safe, 'Master~'."
Elenei teased Mira a bit, but she soon lost interest seeing her unfazed.
"Geez… You're no fun."
Elenei pouted.
Mira just shook her head and thought a bit about the place Celaine was sent to. Elenei and Mira had discussed this a while back when they understood that Celain will probably go solo after she breaks through.
Mira told Elenei to look for any interesting places that could help boost Celaine's strength in the shortest amount of time and that torturous place was her first pick.
There were several other worlds that were a bit easier or less deadly than that one and Celaine would probably thrive in those places and progress at a steady rate. But that's not what Mira wanted!
She didn't want Celaine to thrive! She wanted her to struggle and grind her way to the top with nothing but her own two hands!
That's how Mira's training has always been: Do or die!
"You really are a sadist, you know that?"
Elenei commented.
"Wrong. I don't derive pleasure from watching them suffer… well, maybe a little when it comes to Maria, but usually I don't. I put them through situations that I, myself, would do. Nothing more, nothing less. If they don't like it, they can go. But do you see them going anywhere? No, they come back for more! That's because they are getting stronger every day. You might not understand this, but the feeling of progressing every day is a special kind of feeling, one that can't be replaced by anything else. That's why even if they are tortured every day or are constantly on the brink of death, as long as they see themselves improve then it's worth it."
Mira explained and went back to comprehending Yin Fire.
Elenei looked like she wanted to say something, but seeing Mira get back to work she decided to just stay quiet.
Time quickly passed for the four of them and soon a few months had already gone by.